Archive for the ‘Bill Bader’ tag

According to GasserMadness.com, where I found these pictures, this was the Bader and Ferrara Crosley Competition Coupe from Cypress, California, and it ran a blown Cadillac V-8 engine. A little googling turns up a claim that Tom McEwen piloted it at one point and that it also went by the name Crosseyed Crosley.

It doesn’t appear to have the same profile or modifications as the Hubbard Crosley dragster, so now we have two mystery Crosley dragsters on our hands. And, to complicate things, I turned up mentions of several more Crosley dragsters in my research, including the Sidewinder, a 1946 Crosley with an Oldsmobile engine (V-8, I would assume); the Exterminator, a 1950 Crosley B/Altered (later renamed Psycho); a host of miscellaneous Crosley-based dragsters and hot rods over at the H.A.M.B.; Charles Booth’s Crosley-bodied slingshot dragster; and the Lancers (NJ) Car Club’s D/Altered. Not to mention the mother of all Crosley-bodied dragsters, the Batto Trucking Crosley. Seems like there oughta be a registry for these things.

The International Drag Racing Hall of Fame inducted 11 new members this week in Gainesville, Florida, at an event sponsored by Mopar Performance Parts and hosted by drag racing legend and Hemmings Muscle Machines columnist, Don Garlits.

The event was held March 15 at the Paramount Plaza Resort in Gainesville.

Bernstein has come out of retirement to return to Funny Car racing. He won six NHRA championships. Bradley is the only Top Fuel driver to win one NHRA race in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Hampton is a champion racer and supercharger manufacturer. Jones is a drag strip owner, promoter and automotive television producer.
McLennan owns Champion Speed Shop, along with being a noted car builder, driver and drag strip owner. Pulde is the winningest IHRA Funny Car driver in history. Schumacher owns several Top Fuel and Funny Car operations today, but in the past he was a top competitor in his “Stardust” ’Cuda and has five NHRA wins and nine IHRA victories in Funny Car. Uyehara is a champion dragster builder, Zeuschel is a legendary dragster builder and now builds airplane racing engines. Zimmerman is a longtime NHRA Division V director. Bader will receive the Founders Award, for his work as a drag racing promoter and owner of Norwalk (Ohio) Raceway Park as well as the IHRA, which he purchased in 1998.
For detailed biographies of this year’s inductees, go to Don Garlits’ Web site www.garlits.com.

(This post originally appeared in the March 15, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)